Gipsey is naturally endued with agility, great suppleness in, and the free use of, his limbs: these qualities are perceptible in his whole deportment, but in an extraordinary degree whenever he happens to be surprised in an improper place: in the act of thieving, with a stolen goose or fowl in his hand, he runs off so nimbly, that, unless his pursuer be on horseback, the Gipsey is sure to escape. These people are blessed with an astonishingly good state of health. Neither wet nor dry weather, heat nor cold, let the extremes follow each other never so quickly, seems to have any effect on them. Gipseys are fond of a great degree of heat; their supreme luxury is, to lie day and night so near the fire, as to be in danger of burning: at the same time they can bear to travel in the severest cold bareheaded, with no other covering than a torn shirt, or some old rags carelessly thrown over them, without fear of catching cold, cough, or any other disorder. By endeavouring to discover the causes of these bodily qualities of the Gipseys, we find them, or at least some of them, very evidently arising from their education and manner of life. They are lean; but how should they be corpulent? as they are seldom guilty of excess in eating or drinking; for if they get a full meal to-day, they must not repine should they be under the necessity of keeping fast to-morrow and the next day. They have iron constitutions, because they have been brought up hardily. The pitiless mother takes her three-months-old child upon her back, and wanders about in fair or foul weather, in heat or cold, without troubling her head what may happen to it. When a boy attains the age of three years, his lot becomes still harder. While an infant, and his age reckoned by weeks and months, he was at least wrapped up closely in rags; but now, deprived even of these, he is, equally with his parents, exposed to the rigour of the elements, for want of covering: he is now put to trial how far his legs will carry him, and must be content to travel about, with, at most, no other defence for his feet than thin socks. Thus he grows up, and acquires his good health by hardship and misery. We may as easily account for the colour of the Gipsey’s skin. The Laplanders, Samoieds, as well as the Siberians, likewise, have brown yellow-coloured skins, in consequence of living, from their childhood, in smoke and dirt, in the same manner as the Gipseys: these would, long ago, have been divested of their swarthy complexions, if they had discontinued their filthy mode of living. Only observe a Gipsey from his birth, till he reaches man’s estate; and you must be convinced that their colour is not so much owing to their descent, as to the nastiness of their bodies. In summer, the child is exposed to the scorching sun; in winter, it is shut up in a smoky hut. It is not uncommon for mothers to smear their children over with a black ointment, and leave them to fry in the sun or near the fire.